I Am Returned: (From Toronto).

It seems so odd to be writing another one of these, "Well, I'm back from another vacation" emails, right after the last one... but here I am.

We left Toronto yesterday morning, around noon, and pulled into Chicago around 9:30pm. All in all, pretty good time, even considering the time change.

Last night, at a truck stop in Chesterton, Edison, Ben and I were all standing around, bullshitting, while they smoked and we noted how, even then, when we were all exhausted and thread-bare from the long miles on the road, we were all happy to be around each other. No drama. No fights. Nobody even snapping at each other. Just seven tired people all happy to be with each other. And that, for the record, is why I love this team.

So much happened over the weekend. I took another 300 pictures that I have to sift through. Highlights included: Both performances were wonderful (even if the houses were kind of small), each and every meal with Stinger was both delicious and enjoyable, swimming in the hotel pool was refreshing, exploring Toronto was a treat, I particularly liked Kensington Market. Lowlights were: Seeing the small houses we were going to perform for, the serious lack of organization at the festival, in general, traffic, being detained by immigration, the Sunday morning hangover that preceeded the ten hour drive. But these were small considerations to give, to trade for such an otherwise relaxing, exciting, enjoyable experience with some of my favorite people in the world.

I haven't laughed that much, for a four-day sustained period, in a long, long time.

Now, though, focus has to be turned towards other projects. Tuesdays rehearsal of "V&V" is the first "Off-Book" rehearsal for that show. I'm not ready for it. But I have the script with me today (to cram lines during lunch) and I can spend some time with it tonight. Saturday is first rehearsal for "Fugue". I am looking forward to the slow, long, smoky burn that is that rehearsal process. And when V&V closes, "Fugue" begins and my Saturdays are booked for the next few months. In addition to all of that, I have the usual Stinger business and the pleasures of producing "Sickest Stories". So, the next few months will be very busy ones. I also have a few personal debts to pay back for both of these trips. Once I settle those accounts, I can actually begin to look forward, a little bit.

Last night, as we crossed the bridge from Canada to the US, I did reflect a bit about how exciting these past two weeks have been. I've been to New York now. I know the layout of the town. (When I heard Roberty Krulwich mention the "96th st, Y building" in a RadioLab broadcast, I knew (roughly) where that was.) I know a little bit more about the scenes in both towns. Who does improv and comedy and where they do it. And what they compete with, in their different markest to fight for audience. I know what summer is like in both of those places and a little bit about how people navigate those two towns (subways and cabs in New York, electric buses and street trolleys in Toronto). I've tasted regional cuisine and am in on some of the "in-jokes" for those two towns.

And while all of that information doesn't apply directly to me, my city, my life, right now, I have the inescapable feeling that my world-view has been expanded a little bit. I see some things more clearly now. I see opportunities and possibilities that I didn't see before. And if fate (or the improv festival circuit) brings me back to either town again, I feel like my experiences there will only be enhanced that much more by my previous trips there. Who knows? I might end up living in either of those burgs, someday.

Travel subtley molds and remakes you. It leaves its' fingerprints on you and changes you in small. almost undetectable ways. And if we, as human beings, are really just a collection of stories of the events that happened to our physical body, as we age, travel to foreign places are the adventures that liven up the otherwise humdrum tedium of our selected routines. I think that they definitely make us richer for our experiences.

John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." And if that's true, then for the past two weeks, the road has been my life. And I've loved nearly every minute of it.

Reflectively Yours,
Mr.B



EDITED TO ADD: Edison blogs briefly about the trip here. The Icomparable Matt Larsen has some nice posts about the trip up here on his blog, Larsenopolis.